Factory of the future:

Industry 4.0 project "Smart Factory @ stürmsfs" launched at Swiss metal service center stürmsfs AG

The starting signal for the milestone project has been given: With a kickoff meeting and a software get-together, the project "Smart Factory @ stürmsfs" was launched at the Swiss metal service center stürmsfs AG thanks to the great commitment of the members of the Industry Business Network 4.0 e.V. (IBN 4.0).

Twelve exciting months with a highly interesting project lie ahead of all project partners who met at a kickoff meeting at the renowned Metal Service Center at its headquarters in Goldach on Lake Constance (CH). The aim of the project is to transform the production of stürmsfs ag into an intelligent smart factory in which all machines, plants and transport systems (assets) are networked across production sites and can communicate with each other on a standardized basis.

 

"Even though we are starting with small use cases, we want to quickly create tangible benefits that will subsequently be usable by the entire European industry with IndustryFusion, the association's open Industry 4.0 networking solution," said Igor Mikulina, CEO of IBN 4.0, at the event. The production facilities of stürmsfs AG include numerous saws, plasma cutting systems and surface finishing machines, as well as a highly automated in-plant transport and logistics infrastructure consisting of storage, handling systems and transport vehicles. In total, stürmsfs AG has 135 assets to be networked from more than 30 different manufacturers.

Accordingly, the motivation among those responsible at the project host stürmsfs is great. "For us, the topic of Smart Factory is very important, we have already invested a lot in the topic with our e-Shop. However, we still have a lot of manual paperwork and are therefore very excited to see where the project takes us," says CEO Michael Thüler. Co-initiator Marcel Meier, who is responsible for business development, emphasized that this year they want to learn what makes sense or currently does not make sense. "This will be an exciting brownfield - not only with new machines, in some cases we also have 35-year-old assets that are still doing their job. We like to be the sandbox for IBN members," Marcel Meier said.

In his presentation, Dr.-Ing. Konstantin Kernschmidt (Head of Research & Development at MicroStep Europa GmbH and Project Manager of the Industry Business Network 4.0) introduced the project's goals, milestones and roadmap to the participating members of the IBN 4.0 association. Together with Matt Mikulina (Business Development Industry 4.0 at MicroStep Europa), he explained the project and gave an introduction to the scalable open source solution IndustryFusion for networking industry. They presented the envisaged approach in the project (project management, physical/virtual collaboration, standardization/interoperability).

Fittingly, Dr.-Ing. Dominik Rohrmus (Siemens AG & Labs Network Industrie 4.0 e.V.) gave a rousing presentation in which he offered a current status and global outlook on the topics of interoperability and standardization. The renowned manufacturer of microprocessors, Intel, is also involved in the joint project: "We see this as a huge business opportunity for us and for all of Germany. We are looking forward to developing a joint solution," said Christian Roth, Director Enterprise Sales.

Click here for a detailed presentation of the smartfactory @ stürmsfs project with a news ticker on the current status.

 

More info about Smart Factory @ stürmsfs